1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting electronic parts on a mounting board and, more specifically, to an apparatus for mounting electronic parts enhancing the versatility in the mounting operation and facilitating the operation and maintenance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The operation for mounting chips such as semiconductor devices, resistors and capacitors on a mounting board has been automatically carried out by using an apparatus for mounting electronic parts.
A conventional apparatus 1 for mounting electronic parts has been constituted by, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of electronic parts-mounting units, for example, by four electronic parts-mounting units 2A to 2D to mount required electronic parts on a mounting board conveyed by a conveyer means 3 through a series of mounting operations. In the apparatus 1 for mounting electronic parts, for example, the electronic parts-mounting unit 2A mounts a semiconductor device, the electronic parts-mounting unit 2B mounts another semiconductor device, the electronic parts-mounting unit 2C mounts a resistor and, finally, the electronic parts-mounting unit 2D mounts a capacitor on the mounting board to thereby fabricate a desired electronic device.
The plurality of electronic parts-mounting units 2 constituting the electronic part mounting apparatus 1 are mechanically linked together through means for conveying electronic parts, but are individually controlled by inserting recording media such as floppy disks in each of the electronic parts-mounting units 2, the floppy disks storing data for the mounting operation for each of the electronic parts-mounting units 2, so that the data stored in the floppy disks are read out to individually control the units based upon the data.
If further described, a software for assigning the mounting operations to each of the electronic parts-mounting units 2 is incorporated in a separate arithmetic unit in which the sequence data are so divided that the mounting operations are assigned to the electronic parts-mounting units 2 maintaining as good balance as possible, and the data are down-loaded in the form of floppy disks on each of the electronic parts-mounting units. The sequence data are for controlling the operation at the time of causing the electronic parts-mounting units to execute the mounting operations.
According to the conventional apparatus for mounting electronic parts, however, the sequence data must be managed for each of the electronic parts-mounting units as described above. When it is attempted to change the balance of operation by changing the ratio of mounting operations among the electronic parts-mounting units, however, sequence data must be newly and separately provided for each of the electronic parts-mounting units.
Further, it often becomes necessary to change the ratio of mounting operation among the electronic parts-mounting units, and separately and newly preparing the sequence data each time for each of the electronic parts-mounting units is a time-consuming and laborious work hindering the effort for improving the efficiency of mounting operation. This further imposes limitation on the versatility of operation of the electronic parts-mounting units, making the operation and maintenance difficult.
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for mounting electronic parts which is capable of conducting a versatile mounting operation in mounting the electronic parts, facilitating the operation and maintenance.
According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for mounting electronic parts comprising:
a plurality of electronic parts-mounting units for mounting predetermined electronic parts on a mounting board at predetermined positions;
a communications means for connecting said plurality of electronic parts-mounting units; and
an operation control unit for outputting machine logic numbers and electronic parts numbers of each of said mounting units to said communication means; wherein
the mounting sequences of the units are controlled by specifying the machine logic numbers of the units.
The electronic parts-mounting units have the mechanical and control constitutions the same as those of the prior art in addition to the constitution specified by the invention, and are linked to each other by a mounting board conveyer means of a known constitution.
The communications system stands for a network, and the electronic parts-mounting units are electrically connected together through a network cable.
According to the present invention, the same sequence data are prepared and each of the electronic parts-mounting units obtains the required sequence data from the above sequence data through selection filters. Therefore, the sequence data can be easily prepared, and the mounting operation can be distributed maintaining good balance among the electronic parts-mounting units.
Further, the communications mechanism, control mechanism and data structure are so constituted that a group of electronic parts-mounting units linked together are operated as a single unit by a sequence of data, making it possible to improve the production efficiency of the electronic parts-mounting unit, to broaden the compatibility of mounting operations of the electronic parts-mounting units and to improve the versatility in the mounting operations of the electronic parts-mounting units.
A preferred embodiment of the invention exhibits a communications function for declaring one of the electronic parts-mounting units linked together to be a parent unit and permitting all electronic parts-mounting units inclusive of the parent unit itself to work in cooperation with the parent unit, and a child unit control function for controlling the operations of the child units.
More preferably, the parent unit includes a sequence compiler which allocates sequence data to the child units based on the machine logic numbers and incorporates a link control soft program for maintaining a balance of production, wherein the same sequence data are transmitted to all child units inclusive of the parent unit, and the child units read the portions that meet their own machine logic numbers from the sequence data through selection filters to execute the sequence.
The electronic parts-mounting units constituting the apparatus for mounting electronic parts need not all be equipped with a sequence compiler, and any one of the electronic parts-mounting units equipped with the sequence compiler declares to be a parent unit.
In the apparatus for mounting electronic parts according to the present invention, the machine logic numbers set to the electronic parts-mounting units can be freely changed.
This makes it possible to further broaden the compatibility of mounting operations among the electronic parts-mounting units and to further enhance the versatility of mounting operations of the electronic parts-mounting units.
Among the electronic parts-mounting units linked together, further, the electronic parts-mounting unit that is not being used is allowed to stand by as a spare unit. When the electronic parts-mounting unit having run out of parts to be mounted is to be changed over to the electronic parts-mounting unit that is standing by, therefore, the machine logic number of the electronic parts-mounting unit having run out of parts to be mounted is substituted for the machine logic number of the electronic parts-mounting unit that is standing by so as to be able to quickly change over the electronic parts-mounting unit.